To not have a clue what a healthy diet is anymore?

[Insearchoffitness]

I grew up to believe that a healthy diet was essentially some type of low sugar cereal/porridge or eggs for breakfast, a sandwich on brown bread or a salad for lunch with some fruit and a homemade dinner with non processed meat/fish carbs and veg.

I also believed that a bit of freezer food, chocolate or a takeaway wasn't the work of the devil and was fine for a lazy weekend dinner once a week. Pretty much have your 5 a day at least and everything in moderation.

When I read on here I feel I'm in a parallel universe. Someone was criticising weetabix with banana as being too high in sugar, there's low carbs, ketosis, zero sugar, people claiming fruit has too much sugar. Someone on tv the other day was slagging off butter saying they'd never eat butter.

There are some seriously eating disordered - probably functioning anorexic - people on here. Your diet is fine.

I think I grew up pretty much the same way as you. Even now, my breakfast and lunch don't tend to vary much and dinner, while healthy, is usually quite simple.
I have a colleague who complains that it's impossible to cook from scratch as, in her head, any meal worth cooking takes hours to prepare and she just doesn't have the time. So she either has takeaway/ ready meals or commandeers the kitchen for several hours of an evening, spending loads on expensive ingredients and stressing herself out. You saw similar on the recent Roast Dinner thread- people making food much more complicated than it needs to be.

Fat has been blamed for everything the carbs did. Take the food pyramid and turn it on it's head. Absolutely everyone I've seen do this has had huge health improvements including reversing chronic diseases including Type 2 Diabetes.

Zero grains, cereals, sugars and few starches.

I remember when bacon and eggs was the devil's food. The healthy breakfast was cereal accompanied by a glass of orange juice.
Now it's the other way round!

Too many amateurs have read too many diet books written by other amateurs and they think they know it all. Pick them out on this thread if you want a bit of fun.

MN is full of anti carb loons, I wouldn't worry about it.

There are some seriously eating disordered - probably functioning anorexic - people on here. Your diet is fine.

Totally agree with this!

I have a friend who has recently gone vegan but also keto apparently and she's lost LOADS of weight and she wasn't fat to begin with! I'm really worried about her but no idea how to approach

Too many amateurs have read too many diet books written by other amateurs and they think they know it all. Pick them out on this thread if you want a bit of fun. agree with this too

I'm an ex nurse and I really strongly feel that completely (or almost completely) cutting out any food group is really unhealthy. They all have different and complimentary functions eg many vitamins and minerals are fat soluble but not necessarily in fatty foods so we need to eat them WITH healthy fats to get the nutrition

In addition I trained at the time when butter was demonised and everyone was moving to Spreads, I happened to be doing my community training and as well as nurses had contact with dieticians too. They ALL said it was ridiculous and harmful advice, that the best and healthiest diets are those which remain as natural as possible, they advised their patients for whom cholesterol etc was a concern to continue using butter but minimally and NOT to use spreads. Around 6 months later it hit the news cycles about trans fats etc and the harm they cause and the demonising of butter BEGAN to reverse - took a lot of years for it to be fully recovered!

I foresee a similar issue with artificial sweeteners. Anything that is created in a lab and has ZERO nutritional content is deeply suspicious in my opinion.

We are consuming vast amounts of artificial sweeteners...and yet we're fatter than ever as a nation! The same is happening/has happened in USA. I have family there and apparently there is STARTING to be a backlash spearheaded by personal trainers, dieticians and associates hcps where they're telling clients/patients - don't have a LOT of sugar but a little is better than artificial sweeteners.

I feel certain we will find they fuck up metabolism and certain hormones.

OP - your diet sounds great. Keep on with it. It seems to be working for you.

Artificial stuff - sweeteners & chemical additives in food, of the type that are used to make low carb or low fat food taste nicer (?) are quite unhelpful. We should be eating real food, not too much of it. Mostly plants. Not relying on science (or business) to trick our bodies & brains into thinking something is good for us... it rarely works.

There's nothing wrong with what you listed. It won't suit everyone but it probably suits you

'There are some seriously eating disordered - probably functioning anorexic - people on here. Your diet is fine.'

Completely agree. Some people follow seriously extreme diets and exercise regimes on here, and nothing ever seems to be enough - you've got to cut more calories, work out 6 or 7 days a week, never rest. Its exhausting (and a bit scary) just reading it

Sounds like you're absolutely on the right track OP. Lots of plant based foods, try to eat the rainbow, eat until satisfied not bursting, drink lots of water, keep processed food to a minimum. And no, chocolate, booze and takeaways are definitely not the devil! But you'll probably feel better if you dont indulge in them too often so you know, keep them in balance

80:20 makes sense to me - make sure health is your priority 80% of the time, and then do a bit of indulging in the other 20%

Just stick to your non processed, real food!
I think a lot of diet fads are fuled by big food processing companies. Look at vegan products that have suddenly populated our supermarket shelves. Just an other way to sell crap wrapped up in "healthy & environmentally friendly".

What you've described is perfectly fine.

We all know there's sugar in fruit but unless you're diabetic or eating 5 bananas everyday it's really not something to worry about as the 'good' of the fibre and vitamins outweigh the 'bad' of sugar.

YANBU. Some people like their extremes and while I like that there is more information how food industries have lobbied to make certain foods portrayed a certain way, it does seem that that has been used far more to push for extreme parts of the discussion rather than for a varied diet or recognition that what is generally healthy may not be for a specific individual & what one person found great may not work for everyone else.

I am in the everything in moderation camp. Eat generally healthy, have something not so healthy sometimes. That's just normal.

Everyone knows our bodies need vast array of minerals and vitamins to function. It is, therefore, a logical assumption that that comes from various sources so we should eat kind of everything. Unless, of course, there is a medical reason why not. Some things don't sit right with some people.

Food threads always attract the competitive under eaters.

If you dare to let your child have McDonald’s, you’re basically an abuser according to the rules of Mumsnet.

It’s individual. Eat whatever way suits you. Personally low carb feels great to me. It’s got rid of many health niggles I had and the weight loss is s bonus. For other people veganism makes them feel great. If what you’re doing gives you an ideal body size and lots of energy, keep doing it.

When I read on here I feel I'm in a parallel universe. Someone was criticising weetabix with banana as being too high in sugar

Some of the food stuff on here is total bonkers. That’s well recognised. Scroll on by.

I know how you feel! I was tucking into a modest portion of fruit at work pre-COVID and a colleague looked at me, eyes full of utter fear, and said 'you aren't going to eat all of that sugar, are you?'

MN is a bit nuts about food.

Sometimes though something makes sense in context - so for example weetabix with banana might be fine for a toddler, child or adult but for a baby just started weaning, some people get really into adding fruit to absolutely everything their child eats for some reason, which is a bit unnecessary - plain weetabix is fine. Or if somebody is trying to reduce sugar in their child's diet, pointing out that sugar isn't magically OK when it's in banana form can be helpful.

None of that would mean that banana on weetabix is a "bad" breakfast.

Sounds fine to me, it's like the people who do 10,000 steps just walking round their house before 9am 🙄

Can anyone recommend some good and healthy cookbooks that are family focused? I’m also catering for coeliacs too and have completely lost sight of what a healthy diet actually means now.

@mondayfeels

I know how you feel! I was tucking into a modest portion of fruit at work pre-COVID and a colleague looked at me, eyes full of utter fear, and said 'you aren't going to eat all of that sugar, are you?'

I wish we shared an office I spend summers eating ridiculous amounts of watermelon.

I go with a very simple guide.

In every meal, half should be fruit & veg, a quarter should be meat/fish/cheese/eggs etc and a quarter carbs. Preferably all prepared from scratch, and with as much variety as possible.

Some things will be a bit higher in sugar or fat than others, root veg are more calorific than salads but if you keep varying it, you won’t go far wrong.

Agree with pp, there are some really warped definitions of 'healthy' on MN and a lot of the dieting/healthy eating threads turn into competitions on who does it best and many are not balanced approaches to diet. Orthorexia is very much alive.

Keep eating fresh, home cooked food in reasonable portions and remember the odd bit of chocolate or cake isn't the devil. Neither is the occasional portion of chips.

I find the anti carb stuff pretty bizarre.. I’m a size 6-8 and eat carbs (in moderation) at pretty much every meal. I also can’t link what the average mumsnet child eats to what I see actual real life children eating (crisps, biscuits sweets etc, again in moderation). Or calling white bread junk food! I think it is a form of eating disorder (orthorexia?)

@Dennysheart

Can anyone recommend some good and healthy cookbooks that are family focused? I’m also catering for coeliacs too and have completely lost sight of what a healthy diet actually means now.

Try looking at the Green Roasting Tin/Quick Roasting Tin series. Family focussed and as it is all (very easy) tray bakes there are lots and lots with zero gluten in them.